Primarily influenced the Darwinism of the 1880s, biological positivism is a variant of the predestined
actor model of crime and criminality built on the focus of biological attributes. Established on the early
theories of Cesare Lombroso, the father of modern criminology, biological positivism sought to apply
scientific measures on the organic features of individuals to identify and “cure” criminals. Overtime this
theory developed with the combined theorists of the Italian school of thought headed by Raffaele
Garofalo, Sheldon, and Enrico Ferri, who established the basic concepts and foundations used in
biological positivism which later developed into a multidisciplinary and multifactor approach as
reasoning for the criminal occurrence of which elements are still used today in our criminal justice
system.
A Key figure in the beginnings of biological positivism can be seen in the early works of Cesare
Lombroso. Not only did he establish the concept of atavism first used by Darwin which dictated a view
of criminals as a throwback to a more primitive evolutionary stage where offenders were the products
of biological deficiencies (Brown, 2012), he developed the basis of focusing on the criminal and not the
crime. Through the publishing of The Criminal Man (1876) Lombroso emerged as the foremost
perspective for conceptualizing crime through his work on a framework from which atavistic
characteristics such as deformed skulls, large ears, and crooked noses, were categorized into four main
types of criminals being born, insane, criminaloids, and passion. This type of labeling theory was a widely
accepted framework inspiring later research such as the soma-type theories of Kretschmar (1921) who
took into account the different physical accounts and Sheldon (1942) who related psychological
temperament to a psychical constitution on a continuum. (Henry, 2006)
Based on a social Darwinian perspective, biological positivism was a rational extension of the intellectual
thought of the time built upon the earlier works of the time influenced through the social and political
climate. This perspective established on the assumption that criminals who committed alike crimes were
similar in terms of important characteristics theorized that by locating the biological variances between
offenders and non-offenders, although a naive and simplistic approach, would be significant in
explaining crime. With Lombroso’s contributions towards the study of criminology, his most
considerable was his preference to examine historical and clinical records as a source of data in
conjunction with a multifactor approach that took into account social, cultural, economic, and
hereditary factors. With this, as appose to the previous rational actor model of classism which engaged
in more philosophical and armchair theorizing, Lombroso engaged in a more significant scientific form of
actor model of crime and criminality built on the focus of biological attributes. Established on the early
theories of Cesare Lombroso, the father of modern criminology, biological positivism sought to apply
scientific measures on the organic features of individuals to identify and “cure” criminals. Overtime this
theory developed with the combined theorists of the Italian school of thought headed by Raffaele
Garofalo, Sheldon, and Enrico Ferri, who established the basic concepts and foundations used in
biological positivism which later developed into a multidisciplinary and multifactor approach as
reasoning for the criminal occurrence of which elements are still used today in our criminal justice
system.
A Key figure in the beginnings of biological positivism can be seen in the early works of Cesare
Lombroso. Not only did he establish the concept of atavism first used by Darwin which dictated a view
of criminals as a throwback to a more primitive evolutionary stage where offenders were the products
of biological deficiencies (Brown, 2012), he developed the basis of focusing on the criminal and not the
crime. Through the publishing of The Criminal Man (1876) Lombroso emerged as the foremost
perspective for conceptualizing crime through his work on a framework from which atavistic
characteristics such as deformed skulls, large ears, and crooked noses, were categorized into four main
types of criminals being born, insane, criminaloids, and passion. This type of labeling theory was a widely
accepted framework inspiring later research such as the soma-type theories of Kretschmar (1921) who
took into account the different physical accounts and Sheldon (1942) who related psychological
temperament to a psychical constitution on a continuum. (Henry, 2006)
Based on a social Darwinian perspective, biological positivism was a rational extension of the intellectual
thought of the time built upon the earlier works of the time influenced through the social and political
climate. This perspective established on the assumption that criminals who committed alike crimes were
similar in terms of important characteristics theorized that by locating the biological variances between
offenders and non-offenders, although a naive and simplistic approach, would be significant in
explaining crime. With Lombroso’s contributions towards the study of criminology, his most
considerable was his preference to examine historical and clinical records as a source of data in
conjunction with a multifactor approach that took into account social, cultural, economic, and
hereditary factors. With this, as appose to the previous rational actor model of classism which engaged
in more philosophical and armchair theorizing, Lombroso engaged in a more significant scientific form of
